THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS The League established as an integral part of the treaties of peace which terminated the war of 1914-18 represents a serious effort to organise the community of States through a written Charter—the Covenant of the League of Nations. Before this war, no organised body was in existence to detect the first menace of conflicts and by opportune action to prevent recourse to arms.
By article II of the Covenant every war or threat of war— whether immediately affecting any of the member States of the League or not—is declared to be a matter of concern to the whole League which is empowered to take any action that may be deemed wise and effectual to safeguard the peace of the world. The League's organs—the Assembly and the Council—are in tended to bring within full public discussion any international dis pute likely to lead to war and by maintaining personal contacts and co-operation between the leading statesmen of the world to allow time, by a procedure of delay, for passions to cool. The methods adopted in the Covenant for the prevention of war (when diplomacy and mediation have failed) are set out in article 12 which is as follows:—"The members agree that if there should arise between them any dispute likely to lead to a rupture, they will submit the matter either to arbitration or judicial settlement or to an inquiry by the Council and they agree in no case to resort to war until three months after the award by the arbitrators or the judicial decision or the report of the Council." The reference in the article to "judicial settlement" is meant to imply submission of the dispute to the Permanent Court of Inter national Justice set up at The Hague by a unanimous vote of the Assembly of the League of Nations on December 13, 192o. The creation of this tribunal has for the first time in the world's history provided States with a real Court of Justice organised on strictly judicial lines. Its jurisdiction is, on principle, optional. Article 36 of the Statute of the Court offers, however, to States the possibility of making this jurisdiction obligatory by providing that they may by a declaration recognise as "compulsory ipso facto and without special agreement the jurisdiction of the Court in all or any of the classes of legal disputes concerning (a) the interpretation of a treaty; (b) any question of international law; (c) the existence of any fact which, if established, would consti tute a breach of an international obligation; and (d) the nature and extent of the reparation to be made for the breach of an international obligation." So far only 26 States have effectively
bound themselves to this compulsory jurisdiction amongst which are Great Britain and the British Dominions. The establishment of the Permanent Court does not displace the Court of Arbitration organised by The Hague Peace Conferences but leaves to States the choice between two kinds of jurisdiction, the one judicial and the other arbitral. On the other hand, the Permanent Court of Justice has a further function which was never possessed by the Court of Arbitration, the function to deliver advisory opinions upon any dispute or question referred to it by the Council or the Assembly of the League of Nations and thus help these bodies in their task of effecting a conciliation by supplying them with an authoritative legal opinion on the question in controversy. For disputes other than those of a legal nature and which cannot therefore be satisfactorily settled by either a judicial settlement or by arbitration, the Covenant provides for submission to an inquiry by the Council and, as a further resort, to the Assembly of the League. The Council's functions in such a case are three fold:—(i ) to investigate the dispute; (2) to endeavour to effect a conciliation; (3) either unanimously or by a majority vote to publish a report setting forth the facts of the dispute and pro posing a recommendation for its settlement (articles 15 and 17 of the Covenant). And a general tendency has recently grown up to adopt Conciliation Commissions in the first instance with subsequent reference to the Council if the Commission's proposals are not accepted by the parties to the dispute. The third Assembly of the League, by a unanimous resolution adopted on September 22, 1922, recommended the conclusion by States of treaties for the setting up of such Conciliation Commissions.